local_library Lightheaded

by Allison Jenks

Published in Issue No. 10 ~ January, 1998

today I cant please you

there are fires in my head

veins are breaking

nothing works

Ive been trying

to stand up right

and tell you the stories

just as they were

but I forget now

it isnt sympathy I want

or advice

in fact I can tell

it all in the third person

 

people will shine

their shoes today

scratch them up by dinner

and eat burnt food

every other bite tasting

like a bad memory

and the sky will seem

like another days sky

friends will let you know

what youre doing wrong

monkeys dance in your living room

television is always talking

little girls get answers

from other little girls

 

there is a language of flowers

horses stop the wind

from peeling the west fields

as usual fires fall

to my face and I drop

delicate things

forget to watch the time

and lie so its easy

yell because its quicker

plan tomorrow all day today

until today follows me

out the door and I find that

you can strike fire anywhere

account_box More About

Allison Jenks' poems have appeared in : New Orleans Review, Art Times, Wisconsin Review, American Literary Review, and Midwest Poetry Review. She was a James A. Michener fellow, awarded by John Balaban, at the University of Miami's M.F.A. program, where she was Editor In Chief of Mangrove.